Next Direction

A couple of weeks ago I read a blog by artist Nicholas Wilton about moving forward with one's work. He talks about looking back as a way to clarify where you want your work to go next.  I'm a big believer in that technique, but realized I haven't done it in a while. Which is weird because I think/worry frequently about where to take my work next.

So I picked up my notebook of all my photos of my work for the past ten years and took a look. As I reviewed it I asked the question, "What do I continue with and what do I move away from?" To my surprise, the answer was crystal clear and immediate.

1. I want to make my work more raw and truthful.
2. I want my work to be more edgy in execution, i.e. more rough edges to make it look old and also have a rawness to it.
3. I want to continue with my mix of ceramic and metal (and found objects in some cases).

Wow. The clarity is surprising to me. Now I need to work toward these goals. I think risk-taking is a huge part of this for me. I'm excited to move forward and hopefully not beat myself up when it unfolds more slowly than I want.

"Sitting Here Risking Being More Me"  from 2013

New Ceramic & Copper piece

The ceramic part of this piece has been hanging around in my studio for several months now. It felt like forever. The head and torso ceramic pieces I really liked one day and then the next thought it was just OK, then back and forth, back and forth. Finally I grabbed it a couple days ago (because I had a tight photo/publicity deadline), and just started moving metal pieces around it. I tried weed seed pods and antlers which I found didn't work with the expression. Then ladders, that surprisingly worked for me! I like it! A miracle. The title is "Visualizing Higher Ground". It will go off to the Patricia Rovzar Gallery for a group show in December.

Full-on Ceramics

This past week I've been starting the process of preparing for my Open Studio sale, the first two weekends in December. Lately I've been enamored with the mix of ceramics and metal, so that will be my focus. Here's a studio photo. Pretty much mayhem. I'm excited about these human-headed creatures that will end up having some kind of metal headdress. Antlers? boxes? plants? seeds? Also some kind of saddle with perhaps something brazed on there…but first, under glazing and the bisque firing.